This was going to be a set of stories about the undead, because of Halloween. (Yes, it was started before Halloween. I'm the Pokey Little Poster!) And then it was going to be a vid recs set, because, well, vids. But somehow I got completely sidetracked into crossovers, and I'm not the least bit sorry. I don't think you'll regret it, either (especially when I tell you that there were no zombies in the undead set), because who doesn't love a good crossover? And these are great crossovers.

But, hey. Does anyone know what kind of crossover the first story is? I've been calling it a fusionesque, because it brings elements (but not characters) of one universe into another, but I'd love a proper, dignified term. And obviously nothing I come up with is going to qualify for words like those.

And as long as I'm asking questions - Best Beloved is getting an iPod for an act of devotion above and beyond the call of any marital contract, so obviously it needs to be a good iPod. An exceptional one, even. Those of you who have them - do you like yours? Hate it? What would you buy if you were getting one today? (A video iPod is definitely not what we want here.) Are there accessories I should get, too? Give me advice, people, please. And, if you're feeling especially loving, links. Links would be very nice.

Best FF That Once Again Proves That, in Defiance of All Reason and Logic and Sanity, Snakes Are Sexy.Daemonology, by trinityofone. Stargate: Atlantis x His Dark Materials, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. So I guess the first question here is, have you read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy? And if not, why not? These are brilliant books, people, and they include one of the best concepts introduced in any book anywhere ever: daemons. If you don't know what those are, trinityofone has provided a handy guide that will tell you everything you need to know to read this story. Which you should obviously do at once. But after that, well, know that I will weep tragic Victorian-heroine tears if you don't try at least the first book of HDM, The Golden Compass. (And let me just say that daemons are not the only marvelous concept incorporated into this book's universe.) Okay. I'm getting off-track even for me, so enough with the mixed pimping and back to the story. Except - there's not a lot I can say without spoiling this. These are precisely the characters we know and love from SGA; the HDM add-in may even have made them slightly more themselves. And, hey, there's sex, and it is amazingly appropriate, and also weirdly sexy, considering that it mostly involves a lot of mouse-touching. Hmmm. I think I'm doing a terrible job of conveying just how good this story is, and just how much love I have for it, and just exactly how cool the mouse-touching is. (Although I imagine I have now done an excellent job of persuading you that I am sick.) Just read it, okay?

Best FF with More Cops Than the LA Freeways on Three-Day Weekends.Five Homicides Never Investigated, by Samantha, aka inlovewithnight. Homicide: Life on the Street x Angel x Battlestar Galactica x Firefly x Horatio Hornblower x Stargate: Atlantis, gen. I warn you, I'm not familiar with all of these fandoms - I mean, I can just about spell Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, and that's it - but I still totally get, and love, the point of this story. See, we know who the good guys are, and why what they're doing is right and good and necessary (unless it is totally not, like for example marrying Rowena instead of Rebecca), but - well, in their local universes, the cops usually don't. So, yeah, we all understand why the Mayor on BtVS had to die, but to people who weren't there, it must've looked remarkably like a graduating class going insane, rioting, killing the Mayor (and their own principal), and torching the school. Which is unusual even in California. (Well, in the suburbs, anyway.) I'm usually happy to suspend my disbelief about these things; after all, the alternative would've been for Buffy to turn into a courtroom procedural in its fourth season. (Maybe with Spike as the slouchy, smiling, weirdly scary prosecutor who does all the cross-examining - team him up with Lindsey McDonald for an extra-scary Joss-cross DA team! - and Ethan Rayne as an extremely worrying judge.) But one of the reasons I love FF is that I can find stories that give some much-needed attention to real-world outcomes without having a full season of episodes with titles like "The Process Server Always Rings Twice."

Best FF in Which a Fork Is Used As an Aphrodisiac. No, I'm Not Kidding. And No, It's Not Icky. What, Don't You Trust Me?Thrift, by Te, aka thete1, and Pares, aka kormantic. Buffy the Vampire Slayer x The Sentinel, Blair Sandburg/Faith Lehane. Um, yeah, you read that right. I don't usually enjoy crossover pairings that much, and we all know I get seriously bitey, if not downright rabid, when people trifle with my OTPs, but, well, this is an exception. Because Faith works with anyone. She's the super-sexy little black dress of fandom (and if this makes anyone think of pairing her with that other little black dress, John Sheppard - huh. You know, I was going to say don't, but...) and it turns out she looks excellent on Blair. Or all over him. Whatever. But in this story, my greatest joy actually comes from watching Blair Sandburg deal with the assorted oddities of Sunnydale - vampires, mechanical failure, sexy minors with mysterious fork abilities. I won't say he manages with panache, precisely, but when you consider everything that happens to him in this - well, let's just say that life with Jim Ellison is apparently excellent training for dealing with strange with a side order of dangerous. (At this point, Blair could probably write a whole self-help book called Listening to Adrenalin: When to Run, When to Fight, and When to Call for Backup.) And I'm sure Giles will have a fascinating chat with Blair. Once Faith's done with him, of course.

Best FF in Which It Really Is Vasculitis. Evil Vasculitis.Change Is the Only Constant, by Mara, aka marag. House x DCU, gen. Well. Okay. Some crossovers just don't work. You can, like, find them on some crack-pairing list, and giggle about them, and maybe test your brain's flexibility by imagining them, but the fandoms just don't mesh. You know what I mean: Crossovers That Woman Was Not Meant to Read, Let Alone Write, God Help Her. I would have said that House x DCU is one of those, except that I totally do want you to read this, and furthmore I encourage all kinds of writing like this, because it so totally does work. (Which suggests that any crossover can work in the right hands. I have long suspected this, though no one should write Pride and Prejudice x Backstreet Boys just to prove it.) I'm not spoiling anything when I tell you that the central concept here is Tim Drake = Gregory House. And, wow. That's an equals sign that just has no business at all existing, right? But marag does a fabulous job of showing how point A gets to point B, which is way the hell out of spandex, without breaking any characters. (As far as I know, I mean. I've read, like, four House stories and seen absolutely zip of the canon, so I'm making no promises there.) And, okay, I should probably mention that this story contains spoilers for Identity Crisis and WTF Games, or whatever the hell those canon clusterfucks were called, but the thing is - it resolves those arcs in a way we probably won't get to see in canon. Plus, this story has Cass, and she always elevates the level of discourse. So - grown-up, snarky Tim. Grown-up Cass. Batfamily guilt trips. Emotional resolution. This story has it all. And did I mention the whacked-out crossover aspect?

PS: This line though no one should write Pride and Prejudice x Backstreet Boys just to prove it made me laugh so hard I nearly choked, and then had to hide behind my monitor, because the freaky graduate-student-people I hide out in here with were looking at me

...You just mentioned zombies and crossovers in the same paragraph, and I now feel compelled to point out a zombie crossover.

Cold Ones, by ciceqi, is a Vagrant Story/Highlander crossover whose pairing is cannibal/zombie and whose kink is squick/fluff. She tells you everything you need to know about both fandoms in the author's notes -- it takes about three sentences. So wrong it hurts, and somehow woobie at the same time.

...In case, you know, you decided to do some undead recs next Halloween, or anything.

I don't even know what Vagrant Story is. But it's a rec. It'd probably save a lot of time and whining about how I don't need a new fandom if I just succumbed right now, wouldn't it?

*succumbs*

...In case, you know, you decided to do some undead recs next Halloween, or anything.

What I say is, why restrict the fun to just one day a year? Is there really a bad time for the undead?

(And, hey, minor coincidence - one of your stories was in that set. Although it's actually good I didn't rec it on Halloween, as the link would've died the next day and stayed dead for two months. I, um, had forgotten about that aspect of things.)

We're a two-iPOD family and we adore them both. I have a 40GB Photo iPOD and mr. rose has the new iPOD Nano. Absolutely no complaints on either - if you're looking for unobstrusive and light-weight, then the Nano is a great choice. Its perfect if you jog or ride motorcycles (as mr. rose does) or any other active type thing.

I love my big iPOD. Yeah, its a tad on the heavy side but really, its not unwieldy or clumsy, plus, it's real perty. Lots of accessories for both, too. Cool cases and for the Nano, armband-type holders and neat lanyards. Good buying!

Thanks! I read through all the advice here, wibbled for a while over video iPod v. Nano, and then went with video (because of more storage space - Best Beloved has needs when it comes to music, and also a very long commute).

And I suspect that we too will eventually be a two-iPod family. I never wanted one or thought I would use one, but once I realized I could buy speakers for it, replace all my components, and never have to burn CDs again, I developed a major interest. (Plus, you can get socks for your iPod. SOCKS!)

My iPod is 1 year and 3 days old and hopelessly out of date and I am still in love with it. (I have the 20 GB fourth generation iPod that you can't get today.)

You say you don't want the video iPod, but they're the only ones with the large hard drives, so I can't tell you what other one to get. I personally like having at least 50% of my music collection travel with me at all times as I have whims that need to be met right there and then. Just today I was bemoaning the fact that I did not have the Flaming Lips cover of Helpless with me.

Accessories I can't live without:1. Tape deck adaptor for car. (Good sound quality and works well.) My brother got the adaptor that you tune into an unused radio station, but the issue is that it's hard for him to find an unused frequency around here with all the little college and high school stations clogging the airwaves.)2. Firewire cable/power adaptor (though I think it's all USB now.) This came with mine, but I think it's sold separately now. I use it when I'm away from my computer for more than a day and I need to recharge.

Your poignant picture of a woman caught far from home and needing the Flaming Lips cover of Helpless (Which, thank you, I now need, so I think your next mix should be Songs That Feature the Word Help. Or less. Either one, really.) totally swayed me; I went with the video iPod for the larger storage space.

And thanks especially for the tape adaptor advice. Since the biggest use of the iPod will be on Best Beloved's commute from hell, obviously the car was a central issue. And we live in Southern CA, so the airwaves are fairly saturated, which made me dubious about the FM adaptor even before everyone noted the problems with it, but I hadn't even noticed that there was a tape alternative. Yay!

I bought an iPod (20G, photo) back in July and I love it. I don't mind the fact that it doesn't have video, but if I also wouldn't mind if it did! :-) Unlike most people, I don't really use mine as a portable device, really, since I rarely take it out of the house. I work from home and use it in lieu of a stereo system. I download podcasts in the morning, so I don't bother to listen to radio anymore--I get my music/news/etc. via podcasts. Audio books are great, too, lots of free ones out there. I also replaced my home stereo system with a set of JBL Creature II speakers and I *love* them. The only time I really take the iPod out of the house is if I'm going on a trip and need to store music/data/photos/etc. Otherwise, I'd rather be alert and aware in a crowd, rather than tuning out, plus there's always the fact that you're schlepping around this pricey chunk of easily stealable equipment. Last thing I need is to have it get nabbed on the subway. Heh.

Ooo. See, this is totally tempting for me. I work from home, too, and I don't need music *that* much when I'm out, so I've been assuming I'm not the iPod type. But I love the idea of being able to replace my stereo with something portable that I can store mp3s on. No more burning CDs! No more turning the stereo up really loud so we can hear it in the kitchen!

Plus, all that portable storage; I'd never have to sort through nine million memory sticks again.

Mmm. I know nothing of Krycek (except that he came from X-Files, a show I've never seen) and precious little of Methos (though now I can pronounce his name!), but I totally want to read that crossover.

They'd make an amazing SGA team. And by "amazing," I mean "very hard on the villages they visit, but the villagers never seem to mind."

And they'd get into tons of trouble and danger, but they'd be incredibly lucky and surprisingly resilient.

I got an iPod Mini 4GB for a Significantly Numbered Birthday this past summer and... I can't imagine life without it anymore. Percival (yes, you do have to name them so that your computer knows what to talk to) keeps me from slaughtering commuters -- especially those discourteous ones who think everyone needs to hear their cell phone conversations -- and otherwise lets me get to work and home again without being carted off to Bellevue or the Tombs.

I also have the iTrip accessory, which means I can aim Percy at an FM radio and have the radio play the music out loud. Good for car trips (don't have the car accessory since I don't have a car) and working in the kitchen and the inevitable "You gotta hear this song" moments with friends.

Suggested accessories: depending on how it will be used, some sort of protective cover is a grand idea. Percival hangs out in my Daybag of Doom all the time, so he wears an iSkin (it's sort of a rubber condom). His is purple and glows blue in the dark -- very metrosexual is my Percival. You can get leather covers and fancier stuff, but some sort of protection against dropping and scratching is wise.

... and on to the recs: Daemonology was fantastic even though I don't know a daemon from a domain name. (Actually, I can probably identify the former as "not the latter", but...) I know I missed some of the subtlety, but the rest was really quite good.

See, yes, exactly! Best Beloved has a horrible commute, which is what made me think of an iPod in the first place.

There don't seem to be a lot of covers and such for the new video iPods yet, so I got iPod socks; that will work until we figure out if Ivan (they, um, asked if we wanted to engrave anything on it, and it was free, so he has a name already) needs a travel case or just a skin or what.

Daemonology was fantastic even though I don't know a daemon from a domain name.

Yup, it so totally is. And wow. If you have any interest in YA or fantasy books, you should totally read His Dark Materials. It's amazing. The author has never written anything nearly as good as the series, and it's just - there's also an aleithometer, this weird truth-telling device, which is an artifact that needs to appear in all kinds of fandoms. It has a phenomenal world (series of, really), and I love the second book even more than the first (that's where Will comes in and where Lyra, the main character of the first book, grows up enough for me to really like her). And this a terrible reccish thing, because I'm afraid of spoiling the books. I just - really love them. Yes.

First of all, thank you so much for the rec. It made my...life, basically. ;-)

Second: iPods! Probably I will be repeating what a lot of other people have said, but let me just throw in a vote for maximum storage capacity over minimum physical size. I have both a 20G iPod that I got two years ago and that is therefore obsolete, and a fairly new Mini that I got for free thanks to the wonder that is Student Union. *g* I filled up the 20G, approx. 5,000-song 'Pod remarkably fast; the Mini, which like the Nano, holds 1,000 songs, is waaaaay too small on its own. Pretty, has better battery life than my old clunker, but definitely, definitely get as many gigs as you can.

As for accessories: a clip-to-your-belt carrier case/protector (iSkins are the fancy ones) is the No. 1 most important thing. Some of the models come with them, but not all, so that'd be my primary recommendation. They make it easier to dance around like a loon, à la the commercials--and that, of course, is half the fun. ;-)

You are entirely welcome; thank you for writing such a fabulous story. (And I know full well that I owe you my own explanation for the daemon types. Please poke me if I don't get that to you this weekend; sometimes I get, you know, distracted at the computer and forget to continue conversations when I really, really want to. Um. Actually, that pretty much defines my life.)

I took the advice about storage capacity over smallness to heart, so thanks for that as well. I was inclined towards the Nano, but so many people advocating the bigger one made me think. I mean, if you're going to carry music with you, why not carry all your music?

And I grabbed a cover (socks, actually, since there aren't a lot of nifty cases just yet); I'm still trying to figure out how Best Beloved will carry it, which makes a difference as far as permanent case and clipper thing. (But not to fear; I'll get one. I'm apparently very susceptible to iPod accessories, and I sort of...um. Went overboard a little.)

- I have a 20GB clickwheel iPod. I love it. However, in retrospect, instead of getting one with enough capacity to hold my entire collection, I would have gone for something smaller, cheaper, and lighter-weight, and picked and chosen which playlists I'd bother to load. Since I do that anyway.

- It's worthwhile getting the dock, because you can plug a pair of speakers into it and suddenly make your stereo obsolete.

- The Griffin iTrip? Not worth it. You have to find a good FM band without too much competing noise (which will of course vary from town to town, if you travel), and then, to get decent reception, you have to fiddle with the volume. "There's definitely a sweet spot," the instructions say. And the sweet spot will vary depending on whcih FM band you're using, and also seems to vary based on whether, oh, you're driving under power lines or near mountains or near water or ... in short, you'll be fiddling with it constantly until you either give up or wreck your car.

I hear Alpine has a car stereo with an iPod dock built in, but as I remember, the website didn't even list the price, which is probably a warning sign.

I actually went with the bigger one, mostly because I know Best Beloved won't pick and choose playlists; she's going to want to load stuff into it about once a month, if that.

Thank you for the iTrip advice or warning or whatever; I was considering one, but I went with the tape adaptor instead. I can't imagine something that finicky working in LA, where we sometimes have two radio stations coming in together because the FM band is so crowded. (Yay, flist! I'm seriously considering consulting with you guys before all major purchases because you were so helpful with this one.)

I also got the dock, because - ooo! Stereo! And the idea of a car radio with a dock built in is excellent, except a) the no price thing is, yeah, pretty much a giant "TFV: Don't Bother" sign and b) it'd just get stolen anyway.

I am totally holding you to the cupcakes offer. Cupcakes! Made for me! It's a very exciting concept.

How would I have found Daemonology if not for you?

Is it not wonderful? If you haven't read her before, let me just rec trinityofone as a whole; she's been writing lovely SGA stuff. She seems to be alternating between fun, totally crack-ridden fic and sharp, unusual drama, and I love both. My current second-favorite of hers is, I think, Little Things. (Oddly enough, that one, like Daemonology, has special resonance with a children's book that I love, although in that case it wasn't intentional on her part. Huh.)

Who else would rec a story I'd almost forgotten I'd even written?

*snickers* That would, yes, definitely be me. I've recommended stories so old that the authors have had to click through and read them to remember them. I'm...kind of proud of it, actually.

I believe the term for the first crossover thingy is indeed a fusion. :)(And how excellent is it? It's SGA *and* Dark Materials, and I am full of joy and awe. Fusions squee!)

WRT iPods, you'll probably get this with the iPod, but if you want to listen to it while travelling you should make sure to have the remote control thing, which you can use to change the volume, flick back and forwards through songs, and pause the iPod without getting it out of your pocket/bag/whatever. It's like a kind of cord that you attach like headphones, and ... well, here's a link because my descriptive skills aren't that good.

I know! SGA + HDM = JOY. At least for me. There should be HDM fic for every fandom! (I - wow. I'm trying to figure out what the daemons would be for people like Ray Kowalski and Benton Fraser and Dan Rydell and...well, just pretty much everyone in all my fandoms. And, ooo. Do daemons go when their owners are made into vampires? Or do they come back like their other half does?)

And thanks for the remote advice; I got one. Best Beloved's iPod will be highly accessorized. (It's just - the accessories are so cool! And now I want an iPod, too. It's a disease, isn't it? Or some weird brain-control thing?)

You are NOT a sucky friend. You MOVED. You are allowed to be incommunicado while you try to beat back the seething horde of boxes. (Aim for the center of the top; that's their vulnerable spot.) You just need to update occasionally so we don't think the boxes have won.

And of course you should read those stories; they are the good crack, and cardboard boxes are allergic to that. Plus, they will help you stay sane.